The Loss of the Community Spirit

[Beleg Megil]

Nothing has killed UO or community in UO. I have played for 11 and a half years now on multiple accounts. If UO was dead or the community disinterested, I wouldn't be able to log it. The game, like life, is all what you are willing to put into it.

AoS, item insurance, better gear, etc.... none of that makes a difference. Its still the core game, it still has numerous choices and player freedom to decide what type of play style suits you and is far less limiting than the other games out there.

And anyone that says you can't role play in UO is either limited by talent, imagination, not trying hard enough, or has a VERY...unique... definition of what role playing is. UO is one of the very few if not the only RPG I have played that allows you to role play in a truly immersive style.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

The day I decide to quit UO is the day when I find out that things cannot be changed anymore. There is no perfect game. There never will be. And I hope there always will be enough dedicated people to stirr the mud, discuss and bring in fresh ideas (may they be stupid or not).

Well said! If I had room, I would make that my signature line here!

And no, I do not wish back the old days of UO. UO was a horror back then, rampant PKing was ruining the gaming experience of many players. Today, we have the opposite. As I said, the world doesn't have to be black and white.

All OSI did was trade one problem - out of control PKing, for another - ridiculously unrealistic item based game that gets boring.

Which was worse?

I saw a comment above talking about the old days when people would not bring their best items out. Think about how much that kept the game in check. No one could solo an Ancient Wyrm back then...not without using some exploit. But today, we have players that solo things that would eat an Ancient Wyrm for breakfast!

The addition of insurance and the conversion to an item based model have both caused an upward spiral of escalation that has led to hyper-inflation and the utter ruin of UO's economy. Currently, there is no way for a beginning player to ever earn enough money, through regular game play, to afford the most high end gear in the game...unless they want to buy gold for cash from cheaters.

It is a never ending cycle, and it was caused by UO:R and AoS.

 

[Beleg Megil]

I don't get the "UO economy" argument at all. If you have any skill (which, yes, you need to spend a couple of weeks to actually develop) at hunting, you can be rich in no time.

I have a guy I started as an experiment when the New Haven newbie quests began. You get somewhat decent armor and weapons from those and they are blessed. By the time you have finished them (pally archer template for example) You'll have a few k in the bank. Then natural progression, you go to Shame or wherever you are comfortable and keep training and banking the gold. Inside of 3 weeks for my template, I was GM in archery,tactics, anatomy, healing, focus, resist spells and chivalry.

I had 200k in the bank just from Shame plus I had a rune book with essential runes and I moved up to centaurs from ratman archers to supply my arrows. I never needed to buy any arrows, plus all of my armor was either picked up from the ground or purchased from cheaper vendors.

I moved up to Tsuki Wolves at a spawn I found on the way towards the Tokuno champ spawn. Nice, fast, 2 beast spawn that you could break up so that only one spawned in your attack range at a time. I was making at that point 400-500k per hour.

Long story short, at the end of a month or so on a character I was determined to start from scratch with just the newb 1000 gold and only using items that character could obtain on his own, I had banked 2 mil. It would have been more, but there is Tithing and Insurance to consider.

By the end of month 2? 11 mil in the bank, just from hunting Tsukis and the occasional Lord Oaks spawn. That's a damn fine suit and weapon. I easily had gold left over so I did it for another month and bought a 14 mil Crimson Cinc.

My point? The economy is not that bad in UO, gold is easily obtainable if you are willing to work for it, and all of these "elite, hard to get items" really aren't all that inaccessible, even to those of us who follow the rules, IF you are willing to work for it.

 

[Endrik]

The problem is with people wanting what others have without putting in the work others put in.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

My point? The economy is not that bad in UO, gold is easily obtainable if you are willing to work for it, and all of these "elite, hard to get items" really aren't all that inaccessible, even to those of us who follow the rules, IF you are willing to work for it.

What shard do you play?

On Atlantic, a Sorcerer's Suit, for example, runs about 25 mil. A good PvP weapon can range anywhere from 20-100 mil. PvP armor with good PvP stats runs in the hundreds of millions.

Take a look at this thread...

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=131424

It is very typical of Atlantic. And despite what the person in the thread says, the reason the item sells for so much is not just because of the "way people get runics" on Atlantic, but because of hyper-inflation.

I am not saying that you cannot get passable items for less, but its not exactly like you find Arcane Shields and Swords of Prosperity lying around on the ground near the bank either.

On average, unless a player has hours and hours to devote to playing UO in a day, which some of us do, it is really hard to get into the tens of millions of gold category...much less the hundreds and hundreds of millions category.

The mere fact that anyone should need to get to having hundreds and hundreds of millions of gold is exactly what I am talking about.

Don't take what I am saying as an "I wish I had" class-envy thing. Believe me, I have what I need in the game I just wish that new players and players that do not have 3-4 per day everyday could hope to be competitive.

 

[Beleg Megil]

Catskils.

Stuff is really that expensive on Atlantic? You can find the arties you mentioned on Cats in Luna for 2 mil and that's the high end. A mil each if you shop around.

My suit on that archer I was talking about was (looked it up because I take notes on vendor prices in case I go back.) 7 mil. It works for me and probably wouldn't be "uber" for PvP, but is great for PvM. I actually don't think it would be too terrible for PvP. It is all player made, including the Resilient Bracer and Essence of Battle (about 350k and 600k respectively) save for the Kasa of Raj. which run around 1-1.5 mil here.
All 70's with 75 energy (elf). Stats:
Mana Regen 7
Stamina Inc 10
Mana Inc 14
Hit Point Inc 7
Hit Point Regen 5
Def Chance 10
Resist Spells 15
Dex+7
Str +8
Spell Damgae Inc 12
Damage Inc 50
Hit CHance Inc 10

I only put in about 1-2 hours a day bothering with that character. I am sure I could have made much more but I didn't wanna bust my hump, and after 7:30 pm, I'd rather devote my time to RP.

The monsters on all the regular shards have about the same loot drops.. Maybe the weapons and armor and arties on Cats are less because we have more crafters and hunters? Dunno, but I never found things too pricey here. Sure, stuff like the new relics are expensive when they first come out, but prices drop fast here. Like futons, for example. Day one? 15 mil. Now? You are almost getting ripped off if you spend 2 mil.


I really can't account for the difference in prices on armor and weapons. On Catskills, groups like Blunt Logic are having loot give aways almost daily at their shops, dropping pretty high end leather and weapons just to get people to stop and browse. Lots of groups do that on Cats. Items get dropped around in New Haven all the time by my guild, PGoH, UP and many others. You'll routinely find vendors who have an "everything 25gp!" or "everything 100gp!" vendor at their shops, or a "Freebie Chest" like they have at Charmed Butterfly..... Maybe Catskills Community is a bit ahead of the curve after all?

But really, I don't see anything wrong with a new character training up and gaining gold a couple to a few hours a day in order to get what they need. Its not like players are entitled to walk into the game and be the best in a week. Skill and the right equipment takes time. It can be done alone but the BEST way is to make friends and Allies. In that way, having expensive items is actually good for building community. If I've ever wanted something, I have never been at a shortage of friends to help me get it. Similarly, if a friend wants something he or she can't quite afford, I'd love to help! So there is two examples of how the "broken" economy actually helps strengthen community.

 

[gjohnson5]

I moved up to Tsuki Wolves at a spawn I found on the way towards the Tokuno champ spawn. Nice, fast, 2 beast spawn that you could break up so that only one spawned in your attack range at a time. I was making at that point 400-500k per hour.

Tsuki wolves don't pay out like that bro.
They have 900 or so a pop.

Not to mention you got elite ninjas that will pop up. There are ronins, kaze komozo, hiyru (lesser as well) and a yamadon that are in that area. Getting a 1 on 1 will be difficult.

What you suggest will be easier to do once bags of sending get put back in place. You have to recall back and fourth with the current setup. I for one think that's a terrible waste of time. I'd kill succumbus in fan dancer and get more money less time killing them

 

[rieley]

*pouts*

I miss my Sims!

Just go to the Sims boards, now called EAland. Why when EA shut down TSO did they not give some type of promotion to turn our account into paying UO accounts? We did pay EA for many, many years. Most of us had 4+ accounts. Think of how many people that would have brought to UO? In fact the year prior to The Sims closing EA sent out mass mailing which brought tons of prior Sims players back. NM, the answer is WH. Well, it looks like they have time to save UO now, good thing because I learned to like UO. Closest thing to the sims out there.

A statement:

"After the release of Age of Shadows, item insurance was introduced. Death lost significance. Powerful items were brought into the game, and now they could actually be used without risk. This established a large entry barrier for players who wanted to PvP. The gameplay changed. Instead of socializing, people began to focus on searching for better items.
While during the Early Days, UO was dominated by PK griefers, today it is dominated by item-hoarding "care bears". Social interaction between players is mostly limited to item gathering and item exchange. UO has become more like Sims and less of an RPG."

What do you think?

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Catskils.

Stuff is really that expensive on Atlantic?

Yeppers.

Any really good runic armor or weapons carry incredibly high price tags. In fairness, many of the artifacts are not what most PvP'ers consider to be "uber" so much anymore.

I don't have screen shots, but just go to www.searchuo.com and take a look at some of the prices on Atlantic, especially in Luna.

 

[Beleg Megil]

Tsuki wolves don't pay out like that bro.
They have 900 or so a pop.

Not to mention you got elite ninjas that will pop up. There are ronins, kaze komozo, hiyru (lesser as well) and a yamadon that are in that area. Getting a 1 on 1 will be difficult.

Actually, I was averaging 1100 per wolf and since it was a 2 wolf spawn, that means you can do about 3, maybe 4 per minute using EoO. You kill one, loot, go down to the other wolf, kill, loot and the first wolf is all respawned and waiting.

And nope, no other spawn at this spot except the 2 wolves as long as ya didn't drift too far south or west. Then you'd pick up a dread spider or a kappa. The spawn I am talking about has a tiny little camp set up on the east side of the road with a couple apple trees.

But yes, it was when the BoS was working.